Yesterday morning, as you all know, the power went out at about 9:30. I was at home with my 5 year old daughter. She was playing in her room with her horses (she’s a freak about horses…big time). Lights go off.

 She: What are we gonna do!!!????

Me: Well, let’s wait a minute and see if it comes back on.

She: Oh no!!! This is a disaster. (she preceeded to run around the house flipping all of the switches and flushing the toilets…she was happy to report the toilets were unaffected)

Me: Well, let’s just call Beepa (her name for my Dad) and go over there.

The real crisis, little did she know, was that if my blow dryer wasn’t working, we were in deep trouble.  Well, we stopped at the school on the way to see if they had power. They did not. The kids were fine though and I could hear some of them in the hall yelling, “This is the best day of school ever!!!” I asked if anyone there knew what was going on. There was some talk that maybe a squirrel got in a transformer. Meanwhile, my daughter was getting more worried. It was her turn for show and tell later in the day and if there was no power, no one would be able to see her Webkinz (more on them later).

Me: Hon, it’s going to be fine. We’ll just get in the car and go over to Beepa’s.

She: But the stop lights aren’t working, how are you not going to crash?

Me: Trust me. (though admittedly, she kind of had a point)

I decided to take another tact because she was clearly getting REALLY worried about this power situation and also had NO faith that I was going to be able to deal. (er…meanwhile…we were now in the CAR on the way to my Dad’s). I went for “teachable moment.”

Me: Listen, this is just like that story we were reading last summer. Remember, Mary and Laura on the prairie (Um…forgive the creative license. I don’t recall the Ingalls family ever driving in a Mercury Villager down Jackman Rd.)

She: Oh no!!!! OH NO!!!

Me: What now??

She: (near tears) Are you going to make me play with that pig’s guts? I don’t want to play with that pig’s guts!

Me: Huh?

Then it dawned on me. Yes, in Little House in the Big Woods, there is a chapter where Pa shoots a wild pig and after doing other things to it, he fashions a ball by blowing air into the dried pig’s bladder and gives it to the girls. It’s a real treat. Luckily for all, there was power at my parents’ house. She got to have a 21st century Kid Cuisine and I got to blow dry my hair. There was light for show and tell, people. There was light.

Of course, later I overheard her explaining everything to her brother.

She: You know! There was a squirrel. It turned into a transformer and took out all the power!